Steel Horse Leather
Full Grain Leather, Built For The Long Haul.
There is a sort of bag that looks wonderful in the shop and then quietly gives up somewhere around month eight, usually at the strap, usually in the rain. This is emphatically the other sort. Designed in Brooklyn and cut from full grain leather by artisan leatherworkers, these are bags made on the old understanding that a bag is a thing you own for a very long time and occasionally hand on to somebody else.
Why Full Grain Earns Its Reputation.
Full grain is the outermost layer of the hide with the grain left intact, which is the part most tanneries sand away to hide the imperfections. Leaving it on is harder, more expensive and considerably better: the fibres are denser, the surface takes a knock without complaint, and a finish of natural waxes gives it the depth that turns into patina. The bag you carry for five years will look better than the bag you unwrapped, which is a trick very few materials manage. Have a browse through the rest of the bags and the men's accessories.
No Two The Same.
Because the grain is left as it came, every hide brings its own markings, its own texture and its own way of taking the wax. The bag that arrives is recognisably the one you chose and also entirely individual, right down to the small marks that tell you it was once attached to an animal that had a life. Anyone who likes that particular honesty should also look at Nab Leather and the wider American by design edit.
Backpacks, Messengers, Briefcases, Duffels.
The range covers the four bags a working life actually requires: a backpack for the commute and the hills, a messenger for the days you need a laptop and a notebook and nothing else, a briefcase for when the meeting has a certain formality to it, and a duffel for the long weekend that somehow becomes a week. Worth a look through the men's bags, the shoulder bags, and the backpacks.
For more in the same spirit, look through the gifts for him, the rest of menswear, the newest arrivals, or the full list of independent brands.
